calevscapConfusable pair

Which to use

“cale” and “cap” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,719
“cale” frequency rank
#7,259
“cap” frequency rank
24978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cale cap
Definition calço, cunha, escora, apoio bode ou carneiro, especialmente velho ou castrado

Where the eye mixes cale and cap

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cale
3 ch
cap

Look-alike desk: cale vs cap

A purely visual mix-up. cale (/kal/) and cap (/t͡sap/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cale is recorded at frequency rank #17,719, classified as anoun, pronounced /kal/. cap is at rank #7,259, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡sap/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 24978, this pair ranks #44,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cale vs cap

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cale": el. Private to "cap": p.

"cale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cap" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caleacle · cael · calle · ccale · clae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cale" and "cap" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kal/ versus /t͡sap/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cale" vs "cap" - which ranks higher?
"cap" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,259 in our Portuguese list, against #17,719 for "cale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cale" and "cap" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cap" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cale" and "cap" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cale vs cárie". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #44,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list